A member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits

Left behind

Lincoln Park in Chicago was once the city’s cemetery. As Chicago grew and changed, as so often happens, the land the cemetery sat on was deemed desirable for other uses – in this case, a lakefront park. In theory, the tombstones were removed, the bodies disinterred, and nearly everything was moved to the cemeteries outside of Chicago proper.

As is so often the case with these sorts of moves, the removal was not as complete as hoped, and periodically remains dating back to the days of city cemetery are unearthed in the area. For reasons lost to time, there is also one remaining vault in its original position. There are no records to conclusively state why the Couch vault was left in what became the park, but it stands there alone now, making it the oldest strucuture still standing within the Chicago fire zone and a beacon for the curious.